Current solutions in the market allow personal media (videos, photos, and music) to be sent from a mobile device to a media renderer connected to a consumer television. This “fling” capability is currently not consistent and riddled with consumer use problems and technical limitations. Some issues include: a) lack of quality and reliability due to network limitations and network configuration, b) limitations of various file types, codecs and other environment specific considerations; c) lack of a ubiquitous environment across DLNA, Airplay (Apple) and other protocols; d) lack of end to end monitoring and QoS (Quality of Service) since the service needs to be managed across source device and target device, and e) lack of consistent user experience across apps and devices.
None of these solutions have garnered mass adoption. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is perhaps the most used system today. DLNA guidelines specify ways of achieving interoperability but have the disadvantage of excluding most free audio formats and most common video formats. DLNA uses Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for media, defines the type of device (e.g., “server,” “renderer,” and “controller”) and specifies techniques for accessing media over a network. DLNA has many restrictions over the types of media file formats, encodings and resolutions, and these limitations have limited wide spread adoption of DLNA.
In DLNA solutions today, the time between when a user clicks on her mobile device and when the content appears or begins playing on the TV is usually at least four seconds. This amount of latency presents significant issues especially when users “swipe” through a number of photos quickly. Although some device manufacturers (e.g., HP) have attempted to use techniques such as Twonky Media Server and PacketVideo to alleviate some of the deficiencies of DLNA, these systems do not currently work effectively. Even in closed environments such as Apple's AirPlay, the latency can be 2 seconds or more. In DLNA solutions today, users frequently experience buffering and freezing when they send video to the TV. The video quality is far superior when users simply play on their mobile device versus compared to when they output over Wi-Fi to their TV. In order to establish the required connection between a mobile and TV device to enable flinging today, users need to go through a number of complicated steps. DLNA solutions often involve 1) connecting the TV to the WiFi network and entering WPA credentials, 2) using a mobile phone to manually scan for other DLNA devices on their home network, and 3) configuring the TV to approve mobile devices that can fling to that TV. Users often balk at one of these steps, and thus remain as a practical matter generally unable to render mobile device content on other screens such as TV screens. Additionally, there are many competing standards including AirPlay, DLNA, and Miracast and even within some of these standards there are conflicting protocols. The above mentioned problems can result in issues for consumers including 1) the inability to detect rendering devices and 2) unsuccessful flinging experiences, where the rendering device can not render the content, and 3) poor quality experiences that include frozen video and substantial latency.